Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! The Mountain Goats making a D&D concept album, teases for future D&D products, Gen Con asks the internet to name their new mascot, Robotech RPG news, and more!

Amazon gave us a sneak peek at a new Dungeons & Dragons product, the Bestiary Notebook Set. The product hasn’t shown up yet on Wizards of the Coast’s product page, but this set is listed as from the company on Amazon. The set includes eight pocket-sized notebooks in a slipcase, each featuring a different monster with stats and history along with a “new, modern design” (though a bit ambiguous, the description on Amazon leans a bit more to artwork than to actual game design). The product is set for release on October 1, 2019, with a retail price of $19.99.

In more teasing, Chris Perkins released a couple of map sketches with hints that they may be for a future book. Labeled as “Dragon Barrow”, “Catacombs”, and “Tower of Storms”, the two images were posted to Perkins’s Twitter account with the message “Here are a couple of map sketches I did for what may or may not be an upcoming D&D product #wotcstaff”. Continuing with the teasing of fans, EN World user Jacob Lewis already noticed that one image bears a striking resemblance to a Spelljammer Dragonship, reigniting speculation that’s been ongoing for over a year that we’ll be seeing giant space hamsters soon.

The D&D Beyond team released statistics on the most-viewed adventures on the platform. Tied down to a decimal point are Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Curse of Strahd, with Tomb of Annihilation in third place and the Starter Set adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver at fourth. They also released the most-viewed adventure chapters and, as you might expect with the “sourcebook and adventure combo” format, the highest ranked are descriptive chapters of the settings. The Land of Chult is the top, followed by Phandalin (the setting town of Lost Mines of Phandelver), A Friend in Need (the first chapter of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist), the introduction chapter to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and Port Nyanzaru (the first location in Chult). The full list of stats (along with the EN World ratings for each adventure for comparison) is available at the link above.

Gen Con debuted their new mascot on Twitter, pictured above, along with a request for a permanent name. If you’d like to make your voice heard in naming the mascot, reply to the tweet linked above with the hashtag #namedragon before noon Pacific time on Monday, February 4. The tweet with the most likes will be chosen, though Gen Con has wisely declared this is subject to their approval so my entry of “Draco McFireface” probably won’t make the cut. There’s also a prize attached, two 4-day passes to Gen Con drawn randomly from all entrants (so your entry doesn’t need to win the naming contest in order to win the passes). More details are available in the Twitter thread linked above.

Battlefield Press announced a new roleplaying game based on Robotech using the Savage Worlds rules system. This campaign sourcebook will require the Savage Worlds core rulebook and, according to the feature “stats for notable characters, background events that are happening during the setting (along with current information), and spaceships and gear all done in Savage Worlds game information.” The announcement comes in cooperation with Harmony Gold (who has the distribution rights to the Macross anime until 2021 and co-owns the copyright to Robotech with Big West Media) and Strange Machine Games, who obtained the Robotech tabletop license from Harmony Gold last year. Strange Machine Games will also have their own RPG system, currently in alpha playtest with no release date yet. The Savage Worlds Robotech book is set for release in April 2019.

It’s not surprising that Dread creator Epidiah Ravachol would create something just as unique for his next game, and Wolfspell is a very unique game. The game “plays like a proggy metal concept album” and the theme certainly supports that claim, as you take on the roles of humans who have been magically transformed into wolves. Your actions are guided by either your human blood or your wolf instinct as you roll a die for each, with the higher roll deciding which determines your action. But be warned, while giving into your wolf instincts will give you advantages, you’ll slowly lose your humanity as your feral side grows strong. And in case the game itself wasn’t an interesting enough concept for you, the rules will be printed on a trifold LP-size album cover. The game is available for a $30 pledge or you can add on the entire back catalog of Worlds Without Master (the zine where Wolfspell originated) for $55. This project is fully funded and runs until Sunday, February 3 so get in fast!

In addition to their new convention, Steve Jackson Games has two Kickstarters going right now. The first is for the Pocket Box Games. A bit of a history lesson, in the early dates of what we now call hobbyist gaming, print runs for huge boxed sets like most board games were out of the question for anyone but big publishers like Avalon Hill, so many games were distributed in small envelopes or tiny plastic pencil-case sized boxes that included folded-up maps, small rules pamphlets, and punch-out cardboard tokens called “chits”. And the Pocket Box game line from Steve Jackson Games was one of these and how the company got on the map. The Pocket Box line features everything you need to play in a box that can fit in your jacket pocket with a list of games available: Illuminati, OGRE, G.E.V., Battlesuit, Car Wars, Truck Stop, and Crash City (with Undead and Necromancer as stretch goals with more to come). These are the same classic versions of all of these games with the original rules with only a “2019 Reproduction” stamp and slight upgrades to the components. The games are available for a $20 pledge each, though there are price breaks once you get to four games for $75, and there are add-ons as well. This Kickstarter is just shy of its $50,000 goal but also only recently launched as it runs until Friday, March 1.

While not directly Steve Jackson Games, the Munchkin Dungeon Kickstarter from Cool Mini or Not is obviously in association with the company and their marquee title. An abstract dungeon crawl game based on the Munchkin card game, you and your friends take on adventurers trying to make it to through the dungeon and escape with all the loot. And yes, the various backstabbing mechanics are on full display as well. And of course, since this is a CMON game, you know there are a variety of add-ons, stretch goals, expansions, and more planned. Oh, and if you’re not interested in the game itself, you’re also getting a large collection of miniatures based on the designs of artist John Kovalic. The base game is available for a $60 pledge, or the first Side Quest expansion for $90. This Kickstarter is also recently launched but already well past its $200,000 goal as it runs until Monday, Feburary 18.

Reviews

Wizards of the Coast is promoting Ghosts of Saltmarsh as an adventure book with a setting and rule supplements so since I already did a spoiler-free review of the book overall, let's take a closer look at the adventures it contains. While I avoid significant spoilers, be aware that broad information about each adventure is mentioned.

The Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box due for release at Origins this June will be our first look at the new edition of the now 30-year-old Shadowrun game system. This new edition promises to be a more streamlined experience for new players while still satisfying veterans, but does it live up to that promise?

Ghosts of Saltmarsh will make Greyhawk fans happy without losing newer D&D 5th Edition players. Billed as a supplement for nautical adventures, it's a mix of new rules for ships and sea travel, adventures and supplemental material for any coastal campaign.

Sequels can be a tricky thing to handle, especially when they promise a darker, edgier tone. Despite its much gloomier tone, however, Things from the Flood manages to avoid difficult-second-album syndrome with a game that neatly blends weird sci-fi mysteries and teenage drama, though sometimes it’s hard to tell which aspect is the most dangerous and unsettling.

Gangs kill and terrorize Victory City overwhelming law and order. Super villains run amok. Become a vigilante and strike back using violence to fight violence in the dark setting nicknamed Vigilante City.